Adala UK Calls For Opening An Investigation Into The Mekhzen’s Violation Of Sahrawi People Rights

The monitoring and reporting of the human rights situation in Western Sahara has become an “almost impossible task”, UK based NGO said, in light of the media embargo that is imposed by the Mekhzen on the occupied territories.

Adala UK called on the United Nations and the Security Council to extend the tasks of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara to include a mechanism for monitoring the human rights situation in Western Sahara.

Adala explained, in its report, that the UN Special Envoy, Horst Kohler, recently visited Western Sahara to gain a deeper understanding of the conflict, “After visiting the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf (Southern Algeria), the Special Envoy arrived in the capital of Western Sahara, and witnessed the repression of the Sahrawi protesters who were demonstrating the right to self-determination”.

ADALA UK said it had witnessed a clear repression of Sahrawi civil society and the increasing use of violence by the Moroccan police against protesters.

Before the visit of the United Nations Special Envoy to Western Sahara, Morocco systematically intensified the grip of repression in the occupied territories of Western Sahara, as the Mekhzen deployed thousands of cops and auxiliary forces and gendarmerie forces to Western Sahara.

ADALA confirmed that more than 50 Sahrawi citizens were arrested in the occupied territories and most of them will be released later, and some of them have already been detained and others have faced the risk of arrest and prosecution of minors, who face constant threats from the Moroccan authorities.

The UK NGO explained that the protests were held in the largest cities of Western Sahara on June,28, 2018 until July,1, 2018.

“The protesters chanted slogans in support of the right to self-determination and demanded justice after more than 40 years of the Moroccan occupation and repression, While the Moroccan authorities prevented the media from covering these protests, and prevented them from talking to people who criticize the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, and demanding the right of the Saharawi people to determine their own fate, and arrested journalists who tried to cover these protests”.